Raul Castro and his wife, Vilma Espín, carried out programs to train women and blacks for leadership positions.
She passed on in 2007.

"Raúl Castro stated that if a person is denied entry to a hotel
because he or she is black, then that establishment should be closed, thus applying our
laws, even if the installation concerned is a joint venture." -- On Gender and Racial
Equality, 3/00

Raul Castro - ON GENDER AND RACIAL EQUALITY

Sat, 18 Mar 2000 (date sent)

ON GENDER AND RACIAL EQUALITY
Not by improvising

 Vice President Raúl Castro gives a special speech on this subject
at the 7th Congress of the Federation of Cuban Women

BY RAISA PAGES (Granma International staff writer)

IMPROVISATIONS lead to failure in policies aimed at achieving gender and
racial equality, affirmed Vice President Raúl Castro during his speech at the 7th
Congress of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), which he described as a wide-ranging and
dynamic meeting because it put secondary matters aside and went straight to the heart of
the matter.

Having admitted to the female audience that he used to be a chauvinist,
the vice president and second secretary of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist
Party commented that it is a fact that those discriminatory traditions cannot easily be
eliminated from our culture, which is of immense spiritual wealth.

However, he argued that he was not satisfied with the results of the drive
to promote not only women but also blacks and mixed race Cubans to leadership positions
within the government and Party.

Referring to issues raised in FMC assemblies in Havana City and Santiago
de Cuba, the islands two largest cities, Raúl Castro stated that if a person is
denied entry to a hotel because he or she is black, then that establishment should be
closed, thus applying our laws, even if the installation concerned is a joint venture.

He confided that, in his office, he has on display a photo from the 1940s,
published by Bohemia magazine. It was taken during a session of the House of
Representatives, and four historic figures appear sitting together: Juan Marinello, an
eminent white intellectual, and three black men: Salvador García Aguero, outstanding
speaker and a Cuban diplomat after 1959; Jesús Menéndez, a trade union leader in the
sugar industry; and Lázaro Peña, a tobacco worker who led the Cuban workers' movement
after the triumph of the Revolution.

They were educated in the ideological values of the Communist Party of
that era and, even while in the underground movement, they made efforts to include in
their ranks a representation of the Cuban peoples ethnic diversity. He mentioned
that the same procedures had also been followed in the former Popular Socialist Party.

Raúl told the audience how recently, on arriving at a meeting of a
governmental commission set up to support and solve the capitals problems, he
exclaimed: "This is a meeting of chauvinists," because apart from two women
ministers--one for foreign investment, and the other for science, technology and the
environment--there were only two other women in a group of 60 officials.

He clarified that people should not be elected simply on the basis of
their gender or ethnic background if they are not properly trained, that this process must
be managed and controlled, and that reserve lists of leaders for both government and Party
need to be reviewed, so as to prepare and train those persons in leadership tasks.

Some European countries approach the question of gender equality through
legislation and quotas but such a system does not solve these kinds of problems.

The vice president posed the question as to who could be a better
administrator than, for example, a woman who manages the family budget, after noting that
studies of teenagers demonstrate that the girls are more mature.

He stressed that we must open our minds to this issue and noted that this
is one of the political-ideological tasks for the Cuban Communist Party, at a time when
administrative tasks are being overhauled.

Raúl insisted on the need to appoint more women at the various levels of
government and the Party. Out of the countrys 169 municipalities in the country,
very few People's Power bodies are led by women, while at territorial level there is only
one woman at the head, in the central-eastern province of Camagüey.

The closing session of the womens congress ratified Vilma Espín and
Yolanda Ferrer as FMC president and general secretary, respectively. This Cuban
non-governmental organization has more than three million members.

Taking advantage of the fact that the closure of the Congress coincided
with International Women's Day, Raúl sent special congratulations to all Cuban women.